Floyd County, Ky – Floyd County Fiscal Court has scheduled a series of community meetings to help prepare for future disasters. The first meeting will be held at the Eastern District Library on Feb. 18 from noon to 2 p.m. Another meeting is set for Feb. 19 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at McDowell First Baptist Church. Officials say the meetings will give residents an opportunity to share their experiences and ideas to help plan for future flooding and other emergencies in the county.
Prestonsburg, Ky – A Tuesday evening house fire has claimed the life of a Prestonsburg woman. Floyd County Coroner Greg Nelson says his office was called just after 5:30 p.m. to a home on Right Fork of Home Branch in the Endicott community, where 86-year-old Pearl Johnson was pronounced dead. The Allen Volunteer Fire Department responded on a mutual aid call from the Cowcreek Fire Department, working alongside Prestonsburg Fire, the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department, and Kentucky State Police at the scene.
Inez, Ky – Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty and other officials met in Frankfort Tuesday to discuss nearly 40 million dollars in WWATERS grant requests. The program was created to help distressed water and wastewater systems, and Martin County’s projects originally ranked near the top statewide. However, additional rankings, including one based on median household income, could leave the county with no funding. Lafferty says Martin County followed the rules and that it would not be right to change them now.
Louisa, Ky – The Lawrence County Board of Education will pay the county just under 3 million dollars for the Lawrence County Community Center, with the official appraised value set at 2,944,000 dollars. Superintendent Katie Webb says that figure was determined by a state-approved appraiser working with the Kentucky Department of Education, and both the Board of Education and the Fiscal Court have agreed to it as the purchase price. The board plans to turn the building into an early childhood facility while keeping the large meeting room available for community use. Judge/Executive Phil Carter has not yet said publicly how the county plans to spend the money from the sale.